The best and cheapest software

I recently posted on the forums asking about which DJ gear to get, I managed to get a decent deal on some CDJ800mk2's and a DJM800.

Now im playing around with it and love my setup but getting pretty board of burning CDS. I would like to use some software to play direct from my laptop.

I have tried to research serato and tracktor, serato seems to be exteremly expensive and traktor seems ok. I understadn I need an interface card but I have read somewhere there aer limitations on both softwares.

Apparantly you can change tempo on serator sepratly for each deck (seems a bit stupid) is this correct? the article was from a long time ago so maybe this has changed.

Can anyone give me experience with there software? all I care for is playing mp3s from a usb device and have all functions on my new setup like tempo changing and looping ect. anything else the software provides like effects ect would just be a bonus.

Either of those will sort you out, miles cheaper than Serato...means you're running your laptop/software to get the MP3's, time coded CDs loaded into your CDJs...drag and drop tracks on the laptop then mix away just like normal

Pete Gordon - Deep and Low

Slower tempo but still with balls, deephouse, slow-mo, futurehouse, nudeep, indie, nudisco, hints of progressive, whatever the fuck you want to call it, just good shit! Get on it

Serious? That's a bit shitty...TORQ user, too, been well impressed with it since the 2.0 upgrade...I've never used it out at a club gig though, just burn some CDs for that...if I had a residency/sets over 2 hours I'd take it, but when I play out once in a bluemoon and usually only an hour, it's too much hassle really.

Pete Gordon - Deep and Low

Slower tempo but still with balls, deephouse, slow-mo, futurehouse, nudeep, indie, nudisco, hints of progressive, whatever the fuck you want to call it, just good shit! Get on it

Thanks for the response guys, ive read somewhere that people have issues using the CDJs with traktor, does anyone have CDJ800 and traktor that can confirm the reliablity and responsiveness? ive been watching videos on traktor and im pretty suer I will go with that because of the price and interface lokos pretty good, also is it possible to set my DJM800 up as a controler somehow so I can scroll through traktor effects using the mixer or should I but some sort fo controller?

Serious? That's a bit shitty...TORQ user, too, been well impressed with it since the 2.0 upgrade...I've never used it out at a club gig though, just burn some CDs for that...if I had a residency/sets over 2 hours I'd take it, but when I play out once in a bluemoon and usually only an hour, it's too much hassle really.

Cant your do a bootcamp on your mac so you can run windows on it? that will enable you to use the software for now, i can give instructions if you need

The Conectiv interface is susceptible to crashing when there is interference on the AC power supply of any connected equipment. It doesn't like power spikes caused by equipment that turns on and off eg. smoke machines and lighting etc. Using ferrite cores on the USB cable helps a bit, but for public performance I found that it is not stable and reliable. Personally, I don't recommend Torq based on my own experience.

The Conectiv interface is susceptible to crashing when there is interference on the AC power supply of any connected equipment. It doesn't like power spikes caused by equipment that turns on and off eg. smoke machines and lighting etc. Using ferrite cores on the USB cable helps a bit, but for public performance I found that it is not stable and reliable. Personally, I don't recommend Torq based on my own experience.

Interesting...didn't know that...if your lappy was running on battery, or from a power socket with nothing else plugged it, you're sweet? Obviously that's not ideal still, but just curious.

I had to put RCA Ground Loop Isolators inbetween the RCA's from soundcard to mixer to remove hum/hard drive working noises, other than that, and a few initial teathing problems getting it all installed and running, I've never had it crash/freeze on me once.

Pete Gordon - Deep and Low

Slower tempo but still with balls, deephouse, slow-mo, futurehouse, nudeep, indie, nudisco, hints of progressive, whatever the fuck you want to call it, just good shit! Get on it

I found the interface pretty sensitive to power spikes. There is stuff on youtube about this problem. That is were I heard about the ferrite core fix. I guess each application of the hardware is different. Perhaps if the sound system power supply was isolated from anything that may cause a crash it would be OK e.g. home setup.

Interesting comments re the HDD noise. I never managed to sort that one out. These isolators may help protect the sound card from crashing too.

I did like Torq software and the price but in the end Traktor just works better for me.

Cant your do a bootcamp on your mac so you can run windows on it? that will enable you to use the software for now, i can give instructions if you need

Yeh I could, but I don't have the money to go spend on windows at the moment, don't really want to run a torrent version of it either. I'll just wait.. but yeh haven't been able to mix for those 5 months or so as one of my cdjs isn't working now.. and don't have much vinyl

Traktor is nutcase: really solid application with heaps of useful features. But I've been stung by NI in the past and you typically pay for software upgrades...

M-Audio is now owned by Avid, and people are saying great things about Torq 2.0...but earlier versions were a dog, the Xponent was kack, and as we can see support for their applications seems to leave users wanting.

The expense you pay buying in to Serato and Rane is a rock-solid interface (had my dramas with the Audio8DJ when I was using Traktor) and free upgrades all-but guaranteed for life. I'd say it's well worth the investment.

SL2 from StoreDJ isn't a huge cost of entry considering what we would pay for the SL3, or the SL1 before it.